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The AAP, in a policy statement about sexual abuse by doctors, said that parents and patients should be aware of children's prerogative to have a chaperone during consultation and that future doctors should receive training about appropriate boundaries and prevention of child abuse. "Any sexual abuse of children by medical providers is a profound betrayal of their responsibility for patient well-being, trust and medical ethics," according to the statement that will be published in Pediatrics.

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The Memphis Urban League Young Professionals group made youth fitness and health a priority, using their National Day of Service to hold a Get P.H.I.T. event that taught at-risk urban children to be responsible for their health and well-being. MULYP President Lori Spicer says the goal was to show children good health is a "matter of taking baby steps and believing in yourself -- that you are valuable and worth the hard work."

Parents should refrain from preparing lunches containing foods such as hot dogs, peanuts and grapes for toddlers -- who haven't developed molars and the coordination to chew and swallow foods -- to avoid choking, Dr. Pam Okada says. She says that lunches can also pose hazards to older children with food allergies, and suggests each should carry an EpiPen, which holds one dose of epinephrine and can halt a severe allergic reaction.

An FDA advisory committee is scheduled Thursday to evaluate Johnson and Johnson's Remicade for use in children with ulcerative colitis. In a preliminary review, the agency said a pediatric clinical trial for Remicade was not intended to demonstrate the drug's effectiveness. The FDA will ask advisers whether data on adults can be extrapolated for a younger population.

The Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education is among the factors that help ease provider shortages and boost children's health outcomes at both the local and national levels, according to AAP President O. Marion Burton, MD, FAAP, and hospital executive James Mandell. They warned that the Obama administration's proposal to cut the program's funding will threaten the health of children. CHGME "is accomplishing exactly what it was designed to accomplish and not duplicating the work of existing programs. ... If CHGME declines, so will the pediatric workforce that cares for children," they write.

The AAP, in an updated policy statement published in Pediatrics, said pediatricians should offer young children and teens a medical chaperone during pelvic, rectal and other intimate physical examinations when the patients' parents are absent to protect them against the possibility of child abuse and to avoid misinterpretations of abuse when the doctors' behavior is appropriate. According to the guidelines, the chaperone should be a nurse or medical assistant to ensure confidentiality and patients should be given the option to skip the exam when chaperones are not available.